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View Full Version : What's a good source for plans?



Rich Engelhardt
12-10-2014, 8:47 AM
I need a couple of sets of plans.
One is for a bread box and the other is for some kind of charging station for cell phones and tablets.
I do plan on making other stuff too down the road.

Is there a reasonable source for plans on the internet where I can download them as needed?

Matt Day
12-10-2014, 9:56 AM
I don't know of a single source, but if I were you I'd just google something like "cell phone charging station woodworking plans" and go from there. The image search can help too.

Bill Huber
12-10-2014, 10:26 AM
Like Matt stated do a Google search and I am sure you can find some.

When I get an idea I want to build something I will do a Google search on images and then see if I can find one I like.
Then I will make my own plans, for me making the plans is one of the things I like about woodworking. You can build your own things and they are just what you wanted and not what someone else wanted.

I do use plans now and then but most times I will change them to fit them to what I want and like. If you Google woodworking plans most of the woodworking magazine have an area for plans.

Good Luck....

Bill Bukovec
12-10-2014, 12:40 PM
Popular Woodworking has an "I Can Do That" section for plans. I don't know if they have a charging station.

+1 on Bill's suggestion (find a picture of one you like and make your own design)

I'm fortunate that my employer uses Solidworks and has a "home use" program do I can use Solidworks on my laptop at home.

If I didn't have Solidworks, I'd try Google Sketch up.

Jim Rimmer
12-10-2014, 1:04 PM
Like Matt stated do a Google search and I am sure you can find some.

When I get an idea I want to build something I will do a Google search on images and then see if I can find one I like.
Then I will make my own plans, for me making the plans is one of the things I like about woodworking. You can build your own things and they are just what you wanted and not what someone else wanted.

I do use plans now and then but most times I will change them to fit them to what I want and like. If you Google woodworking plans most of the woodworking magazine have an area for plans.

Good Luck....

I tend to follow Bil's method. I look at something like a charging station and think: "that's OK but my xxxxx is not exactly like that so if I change A or B, it will work."

Dave Richards
12-10-2014, 1:12 PM
Like the others, I would look for photos of what I want to make and work out my own plans. Whether you do it with pencil and paper, SketchUp (hasn't been Google for three years or so) or Solidworks, you probably know enough about woodworking to sort out the details such as material thickness and appropriate joinery so you can create enough of a plan to take to the shop.

Jerry Bruette
12-10-2014, 6:04 PM
I've used freewoodworkingplan dot com when looking for plans that I haven't seen before. Once you find a similar plan to what you want you can modify it to your liking.

Chip Byrd
12-10-2014, 8:09 PM
This is from the Wood Whisperer:

http://youtube/cefywPhPphg

Bill Ryall
12-11-2014, 11:25 AM
(don't laugh)

Pintrest. If you see something with attributes you like, roll your own plans.

Keith Hankins
12-11-2014, 12:22 PM
Plansnow.com are pretty good.

Garth Almgren
12-11-2014, 8:53 PM
(don't laugh)

Pintrest. If you see something with attributes you like, roll your own plans.
No laughing here - that's how I found a simple pot rack design (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/380413499744533531/) that I liked. Built one for my wife a couple Christmases ago.

Doug Ladendorf
12-11-2014, 9:28 PM
Avoid "Ted" or anyone hawking 16,000 woodworking plans cheap...

Dave Richards
12-11-2014, 10:16 PM
In addition to searching for pictures of likely candidates, you might also hit upon something you can use like perhaps this (http://www.grampasworkshop.net/hayesprj.html).

Brian W Smith
12-12-2014, 6:25 AM
Google images here........I'll sit for what seems like hrs staring at this or that,usually a machine(right now am studying tenoners),then like posted above make adjustments twds what works better for our shop.

Still using an old school drafting table.And to it's justice......it is clean at any given time.Meaning there isn't one thing on it that dosen't belong.BUT,the WIP won't hit that until there's been dz's of conceptual drawings done.Just a nice,easy way for us here.......it helps one job to flow into the next.

Ole Anderson
01-14-2015, 8:57 AM
For bigger projects I have used plans right out of Wood magazine (router table, storage hutch) or plans from American Furniture Design (mission bed, computer hutch). I'm not much into design, I tend to let some one else do that step.